


The Stone City

by PinkHomeSkillet



Category: Flight Rising
Genre: Mild Horror, Other, also a lot of rats, some mild body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 23:42:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17354882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkHomeSkillet/pseuds/PinkHomeSkillet
Summary: Multi part story of how this weird haunted Plague city got to be like it is.Also Etzel regretting hanging out with Sparks.





	1. The Stone City p 1

Adeline let Big Daddy go down the stairs first. There weren’t very many tunnel entrances the borer could fit through, rarer still the ones with actual stairs, and he was painfully slow with all that heavy armor. She watched to make sure he made it- but of course what was she going to do if he slipped?- she wasn’t strong enough to pull the borer to his ‘feet’. She supposed it was just habit.

“Be careful,” Katsu said behind her.

“That’s my line,” she said with a wink, turning on her lamp and descending down the stairs.

“Yeah well sometimes you do stupid things like everyone else!” Katsu called after her. “Like right now!”

“I’ll be fine!” she called back, leaving the light of the entrance and into the blackness of the tunnels. There was light here or there from overhead grates, but for the most part she had to rely on her lamp, a specialty one made by Daniel out of blue tungsten. You could say a lot of things about Daniel but the man most certainly knew his light- the blue glow was more than enough to show a good view of the tunnel and Big Daddy in front of her, the bot patiently clunking his way forward.

She spotted the first of the signs soon enough- a small crude chalk drawing of what appeared to be a mouse with a crown over its head, along with an arrow pointing forward. Years ago Can Towners had plotted the Rat King’s movements through the tunnels and left signs so that one could avoid them, along with X’s and arrows to indicate dead ends. The first time she’d come down here to check on Urogi it was honestly hard doing the exact opposite of what she’d always done- follow the warnings. Play ring around the Rat King in an emergency, sure, but don’t go directly up to them.

This time was more a mix of feelings. Urogi hadn’t seemed to want to kill her (in fact they just seemed to want to be left well alone), but things had been strange lately and there was no telling what was going to happen. She’d told Sparks that she would at least see what was going on and what had changed, so she’d have to chance it.

As they continued forward the only noise was the sound of Big Daddy’s whirring parts and the clunking of his footsteps on the hard packed earth. Weird, usually by now they should have seen at least some rats. She looked to a branching tunnel and the chalk signs on it. Yeah…they were heading the right direction, so where was-?

Oh. There was the sound. The screeching and chittering of rats. Lots and lots of rats.

She climbed up Big Daddy’s side and hung there, waiting for a carpet of them to spill out onto the tunnel floor, but they were still going forward and nothing.

Finally the blue glow of the lamp light caught the edge of something and…oh that was not good.

There were the rats. On the floor, on the ceiling, on the sides of the walls, all coiling and twisting around each other. Previously they had been black and white things, recognisable as plague rats with a few larger ones mixed in that sometimes contained boils (or could have been those plague eyes that were popping up) but now they were more like a mass of churning, glowing white with red eyes.

Big Daddy stopped and Adeline held her breath as she saw something coming out of the screeching mass, what appeared to be a cow skull like face the size of a beast form imperial’s.

“Ur….Urogi?” Adeline asked. The creature pulled itself out of the throng on multiple limbs- guardian, wildclaw, pearlcatcher- dragging a centipede like body.

Ohhhhhh helllllllll, Adeline thought as Urogi brought that new head up, taller than even Big Daddy.

_“Guardian,”_ they said in that echoey voice she recognised, and soon enough the whispering down the tunnels started- multiple voices coming from nowhere.

_Where are they?_

_Where are we?_

_Silence_

“What’s-” Find them. Find him. “What’s going on?”

Urogi turned that huge head to her and the lower jaw split, revealing what appeared to be a rotting mass of faces underneath. For a moment her practical side took over and thought: Well, at least they’re a ghost or that would smell awful. _“We do not know,”_ Urogi said, their voice many voices, and many more around them. _“We are thinking more clearly.”_

_Run. Go. Run, run run._

“Is there anything you need me to do?”

The many eyes all looked to her. _“Turn it off. We wish to rest.”_

“Turn what off?”

But Urogi turned around, apparently exhausted by the conversation, their long body curling like a snake on twisted limbs as they disappeared back into the ghostly mass of rats.

—–

“I mean what do we do? Take out a wanted ad?” Adeline asked Etzel as she paced the floor of her office. She stopped and put a hand out, mimicking a newspaper headline. “Needed: Person to figure out why haunted ass Plague city getting even more haunted. Pays well but there is a massive ghost in the tunnels. We didn’t do it swearsies.”

She put her hand down and realized that Etzel had his own to his chin in thought. “There is something I have been meaning to check up on.”

“What?”

“I will tell you when there is something to tell. For now it is just an idea,” he said, putting the hand down and walking to the door.

“Okay just….be safe. And keep me informed please.”

—-

Etzel walked up to the workshop, all sets of eyes except the ones he wanted on him. “Something we can do for you?” West asked, a wry smile on his face. Etzel promptly ignored him.

“Sparks,” he said. The pearlcatcher turned off her welding torch and lifted her mask.

“Yeah man, whaddup?” she asked, black soot smeared across her face.

“I need you to help me ask Daniel about something.”

“Hell yes let’s go CASTLE SNOOOOOOOPPIIIINNNNN’” she cupped her hands to her mouth and yelled. Etzel briefly wondered why, exactly, he’d decided this person was his best option.


	2. Stone City p 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CASTLE SNOOOOPPPIIINNNN
> 
> Daniel is a mess, but always a helpful mess and Ink is just tired of nonsense in general.

“You’re certain Lady will not tell?” Etzel asked as they walked up to The Castle, its massive form covered in statues and decorative spikes. There were also telltale thin metal wires across some areas- traps and alarms set and waiting.

“Nah, Lady a real one,” Sparks said, her tail wagging as she looked at the wall, thinking. “Hm. Think there’s one right here.” She climbed up to a statue and inspected behind it. “Damn, closed that one off. Think there’s another close by.”

“And how did you find out that there are secret entrances to this place?” he asked, hands folded behind his back as she scrambled around, looking for a switch.

“Scavvers man, we find ways into things,” Sparks said. “Ah, here we go.” She clicked over the lever and the statue rotated, revealing a small hole, just barely large enough for someone to climb through. “Watch for the wires.”

As if he needed to be told. But he waited for her to go in first, just in case.

He had never been inside The Castle before, but something immediately seemed off about it. It was dark from wall to ceiling and had very little lighting. The hallway was also much wider than any he’d ever seen before. “C’mon, this way,” Sparks whispered and waved to tell him to follow.

They moved quietly and Etzel was almost impressed that she could do so. He’d never known Sparks to be quiet for more than two minutes and to focus on something. She even held out a hand and motioned for him to move around a carpet. He wasn’t quite sure why until it yawned, showing rows of sharp teeth.

There was still something off about the structure, he thought. Mostly because it didn’t feel like a place someone actually would live in. The halls were too wide, the rooms in off places, staircases jutting sideways in odd locations. As they passed by one room someone called out: “Hey, whatcha doin’?”

Etzel froze and put a hand to the knife at his side, but Sparks simply said: “Snoopin’.” Then he noticed it was Crunchberry, sitting in a chair reading a book while eating an apple with her feet on a table.

“Chill. Don’t let Pink Mom see you,” Crunch said, throwing up a peace sign and going back to her book.

——-

“It’s an amped up version of a rather mundane enchantment- Thieves Bane, of course,” Daniel said, runes and symbols glowing in a circle over the sample from Kylie. He continued looking at them, but he was certain.

“Thieves Bane?” Ink asked.

“Meant to temporarily blind and stun a person so that they can be picked up by the guards. It seems someone slightly….over made it.”

“Can it be reversed? Our worry is that if we tried complete replacement that the enchantment would fire off again.”

“Yes, I suppose it might,” Daniel said, putting a hand to his chin in thought. “Hmm. Well it’s made with gold, so perhaps silver or lead for reversal. I’ll have to test it out. This is an interesting bit of work though. It might be a good idea to-”

“Daniel we are absolutely not putting this enchantment on anything,” Ink said, his normally even voice gaining a tone that said ‘and that’s final’.

Ink looked up when he noticed someone in the doorway. Daniel of course, jumped. There was no way of introducing yourself without him doing that. Lightweaver knew Ink had tried. “It’s cool it’s just us,” Sparks said quietly.

“Us?” Ink asked, then he looked to Etzel and twitched his tail. He wasn’t particularly fond of Etzel, though the man had never given him an exact reason to feel that way. “Something we can help with?”

“We were wondering if Daniel could tell us about these symbols,” Etzel said entering the room cautiously and holding out a piece of paper. Well at least he’d heard about ‘don’t touch anything in Dan’s shop’, it seemed like.

“They’re everywhere around the City. Do they, like, do anything?” Sparks followed up as Ink and Etzel gave each other a flat look that very clearly said ‘I don’t trust you, but I don’t want to do anything about that at the current moment. Just watch it’.

Daniel examined the paper carefully as Etzel looked around. The place was full and slightly chaotic- jars and potted plants strewn over bookshelves, on top of books, more books sitting in mismatched chairs. Another table was full of glassware, some of it with liquid inside, some boiling away, others clearly forgotten and left to dry with no stoppers. There were also rugs laying across the entirety of the floor. He took care not to step on any.

“Hm, yes. I’ve seen this before. A modified Wind script, belonging to an order of monks,” Daniel said, handing him back the piece of paper. “Specifically the sect of Weavers Mochi belongs to. I wouldn’t be able to tell you what it does with just that piece of it. Perhaps you could ask Mochi to take a look at what’s around? Their spellwork is quite intricate.”

“Thanks so much!” Sparks said, clearly having realized something and wanting to act on it as quickly as possible. Without telling them.

“Not a problem. Please come to me if you need anything else,” Daniel said, going back to what he was doing.

“Okay we’ll just be going now byyyeeeeeeee!” Sparks waved and herded Etzel out of the room.

After a few moments Daniel realized that Ink was still looking at the doorway, hands clasped behind him and tail moving slowly back and forth. “Something wrong?”

“Maybe nothing,” Ink said. “But I believe that I’m going to follow them just in case.”

He was very tired of things going wrong, especially in his absence.

—-

They climbed down onto the street and Sparks stood still, tail lashing madly as her ears twitched back and forth, completely silent. She was in ‘think mode’, which most people knew not to interrupt, as her already very fast mind was going into overdrive. Etzel, unfortunately for him, was not one of those people.

“What is-”

“OH MY GODS IT’S SO OBVIOUS!” she screamed, causing someone on the sidewalk across from them to jump. Etzel waved a hand to assure them it was fine, the other person glaring at Sparks before moving back on their way. “The spellwork, the enchantments, the murderous rats, The City- The City doesn’t make sense, right? There’s all these old buildings that don’t look lived in. There’s all these magic objects but they’re all enchanted and half of them try to kill you,” she said, speaking a mile a minute, Etzel trying to keep up with her train of thought. “The weird traps that are in some of the houses- even The Strix!”

“What is wrong with the lake?” he asked and she whipped around, grabbing him by the shirt.

“It has spikey obsidian sides,” she said, her voice slightly lower. “It’s….all….designed…to…kill…people. It’s a giant trap, built by someone. Something magical has just been turned off, but it’s being turned back on, that’s why the hauntings have gotten worse and the beast attacks have gotten better! That’s why we’ve all been sleeping weird! That’s why it looks like no one has ever lived here, because only one person ever has! Do you get it???” She then realized that she still had him by the collar and he had his hand on her arm, trying very hard not send out a burst of corrosive nature magic. “Oh, sorry,” she said, letting him go. “I know you don’t like people touching you.”

He decided not to comment on that as he adjusted his shirt and jacket. “So why would Gren be turning…whatever it is back on and what is it?”

“No, you don’t get it,” Sparks said, realizing that she’d lost half of what she was thinking about. Damn she should have written it down. “Gren built it.”

“Built what?” he prompted.

“The City, likely the whole thing,” she said, waving to indicate the entire place. “The tunnels, they don’t make any sense either, right? Why have this huge maze network underneath? It’s obviously not a sewer, too big for a storm drain, maybe could be used for an escape route. But the sides are all smooth like concrete. Far too much effort to be put into something that doesn’t mean something. There’s a secret in the tunnels. We’re going to need a light and a drill.”

“How could Grenfell have possibly built it?” Etzel asked. “He would have to be hundreds of years old.”

“The man regularly takes his arm off and slaps it back on for fun,” Sparks replied. “One time I saw him take out his eyeball and ask someone if they wanted to trade. You think a dude like that cares about age?”


	3. Stone City p 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sparks was right and everyone is surprised except her.
> 
> There's never anything good in those tunnels, really.

Sparks crawled into Adeline’s office, Viltri staring at her as she went over and picked up Adeline’s tungsten lamp from the bookshelf. “You’re going to give that back, correct?” he asked as she crawled back away.

“Yessum, don’t tell.”

—-

“Now you get caught doin’ somethin’ dumb,” Killian said, handing over the small rock drill. “You stole this, got it?”

“Got it,” Sparks replied.

——

“So what is it that we are looking for, exactly?” Etzel asked, following the blue glow of the lamp she had slung over her shoulder. He didn’t know why he was still following this nonsense when he had work to do. He supposed he wanted to find out if she was right in her assumption, though how that could be proven he had no idea.

With Sparks you were never quite sure if she was a genius, or just bright, loud, and tried things until she got lucky.

“Hmmm not sure,” she said, walking in the tunnels nearest The Castle. She guessed that was the most likely place to find something. She sure as hell wasn’t going into the northern ones, despite Ade being just fine in them. Ade was just fine in a lot of places where she really shouldn’t be. “There,” Sparks said, spotting a tiny ring of sigils and runes on the wall. She put the drill in the center of them, then thought better of it and moved it to outside the ring. Best to not accidentally set something off.

As the drill started going she noticed something was wrong. The wall was chipping in a way that concrete didn’t. “Hmm,” she said. “Yeah this is all rock. Guess who can move rock around with their hands? Ah gee, Weavers. Like Gren.”

“But why take the time to do all of this?” Etzel asked, looking at the stone tunnel around them.

“Guess you would if you’re someone who gets bored easily. Aw gee, guess who does that?”

“I never said that your theory was incorrect.”

“I know, that’s just how I talk,” she replied, having taken no offense in the slightest. She noticed there was a hole next to the one she was drilling, indicating an empty space in the wall. She moved the drill over and cut a hole, but there didn’t seem to be anything in there. She poked her head in with the lamp and looked down. “Oooooo yeah that’s bones,” she said, then looked at the shape of the cavity in the wall. Almost exactly person sized. “Ooooo okay.” She pulled her head back out and realized there was quite a few of these sigil marks in the wall. “Let’s try one more for luck. Or not luck. Whatever finding a whole bunch of bodies is.”

Etzel let her work as he inspected the tunnel further down the way. There seemed to be blast marks in the area from something having exploded. Was this where that fight had happened a few years back?

Ah, wait, no. There was one of Daniel’s explosive traps. He carefully stepped over the wire and as he did he could just barely see some sigils in the lamplight. This one was a bit different- much larger and with interlacing script, some of which had been wiped out as though with a finger through wet concrete. “Yup!” Sparks called from down the tunnel. “This one’s also got bones! And three arms for some reason what the hell? Was he just sticking random arms on people? Or was there a person with-”

“Come over here!” he called. “There is something large.”

—–

“The whole shit is this place?” Sparks asked as they stood in a room that had obviously been lived in for a very long time. There were odd tools stuck into the walls, a bed, ancient vials, and one crumbling book.

“I have absolutely no idea,” Etzel said, looking over everything. He found a tiny clay pot and picked it up, taking it over to the lamplight. Ah yes, small inscriptions, so delicate they could barely be seen. “Somehow….I think that your theory is correct.”

“Yeah, ‘cause I’m a smart person who hangs out with other smart people all day, go me,” she said, raising one hand and clapping it with the other in a self high five. Glitter shot from her hands as she did so and Etzel groaned to himself.

“What theory is this?” said a familiar voice as someone became visible in the hole they had created to get in here.

Grenfell.

Another thing Etzel did not know about Sparks- her automatic panic response was to immediately climb the most capable person she knew that was in range while screaming. He learned very quickly, though, as she scrambled up to his shoulders, nearly crushing him as she yelled: “OH GODS GREN I’M SORRY DON’T KILL ME WE’RE ON A TEAM.”

“That we are,” Grenfell replied. “Goodnight.” The hole began to close, what little light that came from the tunnels dimming until it was fully dark.

“ETZEL IF I DIE FIRST YOU’RE LEGALLY ALLOWED TO EAT ME. I MEAN MY CORPSE. SO YOU CAN LIVE.”

Etzel reached up to her face, trying very hard not to give into the temptation to put his fingers into her eyes, and pulled it down to his. “Sparks,” he growled, and she quieted. “You. Have. A. Drill.”

“Hahaha, oh yeah.”

—–

Grenfell leaned against the tunnel, smiling to himself. Ahhhh trapping screaming people into walls, just like the good old days. He did miss how fun that was.

He heard Sparks’ drill starting up. Ah well, he supposed the entertainment was over. He put his hands straight into the stone of the wall, pushing it away as though it was nothing more than water. He was surprised to find Etzel staring straight at him, a small blade held casually in one hand. “Did you remember that Ink can sense fresh bodies?” Etzel asked evenly. Like West, he was a hard read, but Grenfell could see the end of his tail just barely twitching. How fun, he actually managed to unnerve Etzel. A feat, there, though it was perhaps a mix of him and Sparks - they were quite the team even if on accident.

“Oh, no,” Grenfell said, putting an elbow on the edge of the hole he’d just made and propping up his head in his hand with a grin. “Come now I was just joking. I’m not actually going to kill either of you.” That Etzel did not move and Sparks did not stop drilling meant that perhaps he’d overdone it. “See? I made you a way out, you don’t have to keep doing that, Sparks.”

“No offense but I think I’m gonna!” Sparks yelled over the noise.

Grenfell sensed someone else coming up to them- a yellowish aura. Gren paused and waited, not familiar enough with the presence to immediately recognise who it was until they showed themselves. Ah yes, Ink. He had a strangely Light aura for an Ice necromancer. “Ink, could you please convince these two to come out of there? I do believe it’s time for something.”

“And what’s that?” Ink asked, crossing his arms and trying to piece together what was happening.

“For dear Boss and I to have a long chat.”

—-

“But really, Sparks!” Grenfell said happily as they walked down the street as a group, Gren with his arms behind his back and smiling at her, Etzel and Ink sharing exhausted looks. These morons. These overly bright and somehow dangerous morons. “We are on a team! If I was going to kill you I’d at least have the courtesy to let you choose how.”

“Quick,” Sparks replied automatically. “No wait, bangin’. No wait- I’m scared right? But then you come up to hug or comfort me and for just a second I believe it until you, like, put your hand through my spinal column, and then I have just enough time to pull back and look at you like ‘Why?’“

“And then I say something such as ‘You were never my friend?’“ Grenfell prompted.

“YES!” Sparks said, turning and jumping into his arms, Gren pulling the shorter pearlcatcher off the ground and into the hug. Etzel and Ink glanced to each other again, silently commiserating as something else caught Sparks’ attention. “Uh…hey Gren?”

“Yes, dearest?” he asked, him still walking forward with her.

“Sooooo how many of those statues are actually bodies?”

“About a third!” he said, grinning. “The rotting does tend to weaken stone, even if you put in holes to let out the various gases and liquefying-”

“That’s enough thanks.”


	4. Stone City (Intermission)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two very different ‘befores’. 
> 
> Warnings: Gren likes killin' people

#### His (Many, Many Years Ago)

A wastelander stumbled upon an odd sight- a man in a purple coat leaning down over some stone, or maybe it was clay judging by the way he was molding it with his hands- just standing there in the desert on a patch of brick.

He almost moved away, deciding this was not his business when the thin stranger whipped around. “Oh! Hello!” he said, pale pink eyes wide. “Didn’t see you there!”

“I’ll…I’ll just be…” the wastelander started when Grenfell walked over, smiling.

“Don’t go, please, stay a minute,” Grenfell said. The wastelander had enough sense to run, but Gren caught him by the shirt, his hands pressing into it and then through it.

“You’ll make such a lovely statue.”

—-

“Get away from us!” the woman cried at the man in the purple coat. They had been interested in the few buildings standing in the middle of nothing but…

But….

He started forward and she brought down her sword, slicing deeply into his arm. There wasn’t much blood, which just made her panic level rise. She turned to run and he grabbed her by the wrist.

“Oh no no no…” he purred and she spun, trying to catch him off guard and going for his throat.

But his other hand reached up to her shoulder and tore her arm off in one clean movement, as though she were nothing but paper.

“You hurt my arm,” he said, pulling his own damaged one off and letting it flop on the ground with a wet thump- as if it was no more consideration than taking off a piece of clothing. He put her severed one to the stump as she lay on the stone street, wanting to scream, scared and scrambling to get up. Her arm attached to his body as though glued back on and he wriggled the new fingers, testing them. “I take yours. Fair enough, right? That was very rude.”

She managed to get to her feet just as she felt those new fingers on her dripping shoulder.

“Don’t worry. You and your friends will be together.”

—

“Ah,” Grenfell said, watching the creature flop around on the street, obviously too stressed and terrified to be much good. He put a clenched hand to his chin as he sat in a chair, vaguely amused but mostly annoyed. How did necromancers make it look so easy?

“Well, what a waste,” he said, the mass of limbs and flesh he’d put together squirming around, trying to cry out but unable to. Of course he’d been smart enough to seal its mouth shut.

He walked over and put a hand to its multi-eyed head. “At least you’ll be useful in another way,” he said, putting his fingers easily through the skull and into the brain as the eyes widened. The creature, once a person, once many people, shuddered and lay still.

“Souls are always good fuel for magic, but your bones will do.”

Well it might not have been useful, but making the creature was rather fun. It was always important to express oneself- maybe he’d try again later.

—

Grenfell watched from The Castle as the wanderers entered the city, wondering if his traps were enough to get them.

He smiled as the screaming started. Ah, how fun. Did you find the magical objects or maybe a spike pit? Well, no matter, more bodies to add to the piles in the walls and tunnels.

He got up from the obsidian throne he had made with his bare hands and started the walk down. Even if they had lived, they wouldn’t be breathing for much longer.

—-

The sword went directly into his heart. Grenfell wanted to compliment the stranger on what a good shot that was, but there wasn’t much time.

He reached into the stranger’s chest, wrapping his fingers around their heart, then into his own and quickly switched them as the stranger dropped, conveniently pulling out the sword.

“Well,” Grenfell said, breathing heavily as the new heart started back up. “Little late, but nice work there! Almost had me!”

—-

“I’ve heard of you,” the man said, staggering to his feet and looking Grenfell in the eyes. Gren, for his part, smiled. He hadn’t had a good fight in ages, and his body was ringing with signals that it had been injured.

That wouldn’t matter, not if he got within arm’s length of this stranger.

“Oh?” Grenfell said joyfully, walking forward. “Tell me please. I thought that I’d killed everyone who’d laid eyes on me.”

“The lone king, the monster of the Stone City-” the man growled and slapped down a spell that radiated light. Grenfell took the brunt of it, feeling skin peel off and fall to the ground.

Still he smiled, though half his face was gone, showing bone and grinning teeth. Pain meant very little to him anymore- it was just a dull feeling that something needed repairing.

“A darkness,” the man said, pulling out a bright, glowing sword that could only belong to a Light dragon. Grenfell continued to smile and scribbled an enchantment on his ruined palm with an ink pen, runes written across bare muscle. “That must be pulled into the light.”

It would be a pity to kill this person, but Gren already held the trump card. He could funnel and burn out all the magic that was thrown at him. He’d built the city to do so, through the bones of thousands of dead souls and his own flesh.

“Such flattery, if a bit dramatic! Well come on then,” Gren smiled as he walked towards the man who had his sword and stance ready, righteous vengeance burning in his eyes. It would be a joy to tear his form apart and rebuild his own with it. “The king is dead, as they say. Try your best to make me so.”

####  Hers (Not So Long Ago)

“Hey Felix!” Adeline says, waving a hand to to familiar face who’s wandered back into Can Town. He looks to her, those fire orange eyes impassive as always, but he grins slightly when he sees her. Magpie behind him is bent over and Adeline looks to her. “She having a bad time?”

“Yeah,” Felix says, glancing back to his imperial companion. “Got too near a storm. You know how it is.”

Adeline does not know what it’s like to be god-touched, but she feels for Mag- those tattoos of blue energy bursting across her. She does at least know what it’s like to have lightning burning through you, and she wishes she could help, or maybe take some of the burden. It would be fair, her having no magic at all. “You can always crash here, man.”

“‘Preciate it. I’ll help you hunt tonight after she’s settled.”

—–

“And anyway, we’ve been together ever since!” Mag says cheerfully as Adeline wraps a bandage around her arm. There’s still a bright blue line burning through it, but Mag seems used to that, she’s learning to control it.

“That sounds really sweet,” Adeline says, smiling. She wishes they had an actual doctor, but field medicine would do in a pinch. Mag always asks Ade to patch her up because the surges of energy don’t hurt her.

Actually they do the exact opposite, but Ade never says anything about that. Magpie just knows that Adeline doesn’t wince when a burst runs through her, and that is more than enough.

“I’ve been kind of worried though,” Mag says, those blue eyes, brighter than Adeline’s could ever be, looking to her. “He seems really distant lately. Could you talk to him for me? You know, just in case?”

Adeline smiles, this time more reassuringly. “I’m sure everything’s fine. People who fight for a living…they have to withdraw sometimes,” she tries to pretend that she’s not partially talking from experience. “It’s not your fault, but I’ll talk to him if it’ll make you feel better.”

—-

“Oh gods, Jack,” Adeline says, finding him bloody and tied on the floor of the tunnel floor. But true to Jack, he’s still fighting and kicking. She immediately reaches to him and begins tearing at his bonds.

As soon as she gets the gag from around his mouth off, his face covered with red, he turns to her angrily. “Get the hell out of here before he comes back!”

“Before who-” Adeline starts, but she hears the noise of Maxine drawing her knife beside her and Adeline looks up to see…..darkness.

There’s a black smear, even darker than the pitch of the tunnels snaking across the ceiling. “Oh Jack, Jack, Jack,” says an amused voice she’s never heard before, and as she looks further down the tunnel she can see a figure. “You never did learn to shut up.”

Well not so much a figure, as parts of one. The remains of a skydancer pasted on top of a black shadow. Just half of a face, a wing part, some of a foot, stretched across a black body like someone had attempted the world’s strangest taxidermy. His one remaining eye turns to look at her as the creature grins, a mouth only partially full of teeth.

Adeline is so completely taken aback by this and the sudden overwhelming, unnatural _blackness_ of the tunnel that she doesn’t hear Max engaging with someone (or perhaps she doesn’t sense danger for another reason), not until she feels the cut across her face.

She backs away, still holding onto Jack and pulling him to his feet, and through the blood she sees a familiar face.

Felix.

The cut burns, and she snarls and hugs Jack closer protectively, angry as she realizes that of course, of course he knows how to hurt a lightning dragon.


	5. Stone City 5 p

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And it ends with a long and kind of weird conversation, because Gren is involved in said conversation

The three of them sat in chairs across from a table, Adeline with her elbows on said table, face in her hands as Ink leaned casually by the doorframe to the small side room. “If it helps,” Sparks squeaked. “No one got hurt?”

“What is the _one_ thing I always ask?” Adeline said, her face still in her hands.

“Be careful.”

“ _Aside_ from that,” Adeline growled and Sparks moved uncomfortably in her chair.

“Keep….keep you informed?” she tried. Sparks was mostly uncomfortable because she’d disappointed her friend, or maybe that she’d gotten caught disappointing her friend. Either way, really.

“Exactly, Sparks,” Adeline said, lifting her head up. “If you two were hurt or had died in the tunnels do you know how long it would have taken to track you down? And then we would also have no idea who did it or why.”

“I wouldn’t have-” Gren started.

“You, shush for a second,” Ade said, pointing at him but looking at Sparks and Etzel. “I really appreciate that you two wanted to look into this on your own time and help me out with it, but please, again, really, next time _just keep me informed_.” Etzel nodded once, apparently not fazed in the slightest. Sparks nodded enthusiastically, wanting to get out of the room as quickly as possible. “You three can leave now, and thank you Ink for looking after them.” Ink tilted his head at Grenfell, wordlessly asking if he wanted her to stay nearby as Etzel and Sparks took their leave, Sparks a bit faster. Adeline shook her head at Ink and he shrugged before exiting.

Once they were gone Adeline leaned back in the chair, crossing her legs as she clasped her hands together in her lap. She then just stared dead eyed at Grenfell.

“Fine, so,” Grenfell said, mimicking her posture. “Before I say anything, I would like to remind you that we have a general policy of ignoring past sins so long as you don’t cause trouble here.”

“That we do,” Adeline said evenly, nodding her head and waiting for him to continue. Gren hated silence and non-reaction, she knew.

“And that technically the trouble I did cause here was before any of you moved here. So it could be said that I didn’t really cause trouble here here.”

“I’m sure I’m about to hear something that tests the limits of that,” she replied, leaning an elbow on the arm of her chair and waiting.

“Well then,” Grenfell said, throwing his hands open. “Fine, I did build The City, and yes, I did kill people.” He paused but she was still just staring at him, her eyes half closed as though bored. “A good amount of people, for many years. And put their bodies in the tunnels, along with some of the houses and statues. Sometimes I put alive people in the tunnels and statues, but you know, not really alive long after that!” he grinned and chuckled. He really couldn’t help the smiling or the laughter.

Finally she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Gren.”

“Don’t sigh at me, I’m being honest.”

“You are, you really are,” she said, rubbing her forehead. “No wonder this whole place is haunted,” she muttered.

“That I didn’t intend!” he said happily. “But you know, enough magic and corpses and it’s bound to happen eventually. It does give the place a very good feel, though. Goes with the architecture.”

“ _Why_ Gren?”

“Well, I mean the gothic buildings really lend themselves to-”

“No Gren, I mean why did you put people into the tunnels, why the city? Why any of it?”

“I might have also taken out a few bones. And organs. And sometimes I fused people together to watch them flop around and scream, or took out all their bones to see how long they lived for.”

Adeline still had a hand to her forehead as she looked down. “You were just really bored, weren’t you?”

Gren stared at her, those pale pink eyes wide and teeth clenched, not wanting to say it because he knew what he was going to hear in response. “…..yes. And to see if I could,” he hissed out and looked away. She sighed. “This was before I met all of you!”

“And you wouldn’t have ever met any of us because you would have tried to kill us. See how that works?”

“I’ve realized that. It’s actually been fun being around people- you never quite know what they’ll do or think up. Absolutely no killing anymore unless in defense, promise!” He said holding his hands wide and smiling. It was near impossible to tell if that happy tone was him obviously lying or if it was just Gren being Gren.

“And is there anything else?” She asked, looking to him. He was sitting perfectly still, a snarl beginning to form. “Gren. I’m going to be upset if I have to find out from someone else. Just tell me please.”

“Fine! Fine, fine, fine- but you can’t be mad. Or sigh at me.”

Her natural reaction was to want to sigh in frustration preemptively, as this was not going to be good news. “What is it, Gren?”

“You know those strange wildclaws that used to live up north?”

“‘Used to’?” She asked, but he paused and waited for her to inform him. As if he really had the right to call anyone else weird. “The Pack. Yeah, kind of a reclusive bunch.”

“I might have killed one or two of them to run the rest off so that I could have their mine. And took their teeth because one of them had neat fangs. But again this was before I moved here.”

“….and that’s how you had money for your shop and supplies,” Adeline said, leaning back in the chair and thinking. “But Snow and Vaughn have been getting paid.”

“I may have been enlisting Pickles’ help in forging letters in return for gems,” Gren said, back to grinning happily.

“Freakin’ Pickles,” Adeline muttered and looked to the door. Seemed she had someone else to talk to today.

“Oh, don’t be mad at him I may have threatened him,” Gren said, waving a hand dismissively. “And keep in mind it was right after The Pack thing so he took it quite seriously.”

“Fine, alright,” Adeline said, trying to process all this and what exactly to do about it. “So you built this place- how do we turn the magic…or whatever it is…off?”

Grenfell tilted his head, confused by the question until it dawned on him what she was asking for. “But if we do that then we can’t teleport the city,” he said. “There’s quite the reserve of Shadow magic stored thanks to the leyline we’re on top of. We could all have a little vacation in Wind and come right back!”

“Teleport the-” Adeline started, then sat up more. “Gren is the reason the city moves around because of an enchantment you made?”

“Partially!” he replied. “Actually when I was imprisoned it seems my jailers made a few adjustments. You know, made the place hard to find, set it so it made a really annoying noise to beastclans and monsters so they wanted to shut it up but couldn’t find the source, attracted stuff from the Ghostlight Ruins due to the previously mentioned Shadow magic…but I fixed most of it!” Adeline thought about those adjustments, and when she realized why they’d done that she put her face back in her hands, her elbows on her knees. “What? I didn’t do that part. You can’t be mad at me for that.”

“No, Gren,” she said, her voice muffled by her hands. “They did all that to keep you imprisoned. They didn’t want anyone accidently finding you or breaking you out. You’re the storybook villain that someone sealed away. The old evil under the castle.”

“That’s mean to say,” Gren said, cupping his hands over a knee. “Rather flattering, though!”

Adeline rubbed her face with her hands, trying to piece this together. There was one thing she knew had to be done. “Whatever it is, we’re turning it off. I don’t care if the place doesn’t move around anymore. In fact that might actually be better.”

“Come onnnnnn it took me a long time!” Grenfell said, going back to whining. “And then we can’t use the shield either. It would be so good for emergencies and I know how you like to plan for those!”

“The shield?” Ade said, now just getting tired of this pure nonsense. He’d always been rather childish, but he’d only gotten worse after spending time with Team HHA. She supposed it was better than creepy Grenfell…especially after learning all this.

“Yes!” he said, proud of himself. “I built the walls to channel magic or burn it out! Once we get The Castle we can use them again to create a barrier. The controls are on the top floor.”

“Once we-”

Grenfell held up his hands. “I only meant that I’m functionally immortal, and you’re young. Time will take care of it. I wasn’t plotting anything.”

“Gren, this is so bad,” she said, and he actually looked kind of hurt. “This is the worst.”

“I thought you would like the honesty?” he said, tilting his head again. It made him look like a large, interested cat with those teeth. He did not know why she was upset, but then again he was very out of practice with people.

“Yes, and I appreciate that, I really do,” she said. How could one conversation be this exhausting? “But you have to understand that if I trust you and you do anything wrong, I’m going to look like the biggest idiot in the world, right?” He suddenly understood, then got up and walked around the table. “No, Gren-” she started when he hugged her. “You just admitted to killing people, I don’t think it’s hug time.”

“Oh, shh,” he said, and she noticed his tail was wagging happily. “You were completely honest with your worries for once without quickly skipping over them and I’m proud of you.” Adeline sighed and let him pick her up into the hug. This was dumb. This was so very dumb. Why was her life just a series of things that hardly anyone would ever believe if she told them? “And don’t worry, I’ll keep my promise. I won’t let you fail, least of all because of me.”

“That’s….actually really sweet, Gren,” she said. “Thank you.”

“And if anyone hurts you,” he said, right by her ear in a lower voice. “I’ll rip out their skull and watch their brain leak out onto the floor.”

Well. His heart seemed to be in the right place, at least. Kind of.


End file.
